MUSTANG: THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM.
Written and photographed by Nanokchida
9 July, 2017.
The Kingdom of Mustang, formerly known as the Kingdom of Lo, covers 2,567 square kilometers, and borders China and the Tibetan Plateau. With a population of 6,000, there are only 31 zones capable of being inhabited, because these areas are “green enough” to host agriculture.
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Mustang ancestors developed irrigation systems to deliver water from the mountains which was distributed throughout their communities. The local people have exhibited qualities of excellent adaptation in the face of harsh conditions, both by way of terrain and climate by building “an oasis” in the middle of a desert mountain.
According to the Tibetan and Ladakh chronicles of the pilgrims, the Lo people of Mustang have been mentioned since the 7th century AD. As the Lo community expanded, the Mustangs became “increasingly mysterious” to the outside world which found this area very difficult to access. Because of this, the Lo turned into a remote and self-sufficient people living amidst nature’s fort.
In 1380, the Lo were discovered by outsiders, who referre to their land as “Mustang”. It was a place where time moved at a “much slower pace”…where the boundaries between legend and history were “indistinct” with many of the details “mysteriously concealed”.
The boundaries of the city wall announced the status of the Kingdom. Even though Mustang fell under Ladakh rule in the late 16th century, then Nepalese rule from the late 17th century until today, the fort of nature has also preserved Mustang’s culture, in a manner not so different from their “city wall”.
Documentary in Asia
Documentary in Asia
Lo Manthang became known as “the walled city”. The wall is over 600 years old, and may have a meaning which extends to nature’s fort which had protected Mustang from enemy invasions. At the same time, these human-made and metaphorical walls have veiled Mustang in many ways, situating the Kingdom as “a solitary community”.
